Using the world’s largest particle accelerator, researchers at the University of Copenhagen created the perfect liquid in the early universe.
Our universe is incredible. Scientists believe that in its early days it was much more spectacular or at least very different from what it is today.
In a new study published in the journal Physics Letters B, experts from the Danish University of Copenhagen used the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) to cause lead particles to collide at a speed of 99.9999991% of the speed of the light. creating something that looks like the first material that existed after the Big Bang 13.8 billion years ago.
This is called a quark-gluon plasma (QGP), a short-lived form of primordial matter. QGP is a perfect fluid, has almost no viscosity, and flows better than anything known. It is the foundation of everything.
In the first moments after the Big Bang, quarks and gluons bonded to create a plasma of quarks and gluons, and as the hot universe cooled, they formed subatomic particles called hadrons. Part of it ends up becoming protons and neutrons.
In the experiment, the whole event only lasted for a millisecond, but using computer simulations and data collection tools, the team was able to determine what happened. between the two as the lead particles collide. The moment the plasma condenses into hadron particles reveals what our universe really looked like shortly after birth.
“This study reveals the evolution of QGP and ultimately alludes to how the early universe evolved in the first microseconds after the Big Bang,” said Associate Professor You Zhou of the University of Copenhagen, lead author of study.
